What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Monday, September 29, 2014

The education of these, my children, has taken a different path this year than in previous ones.

I struggled with all the things that must be done in all of the many areas of life that needed doing this summer without any additional learning requirements... so I have spent many moments wondering how it would all flow when homeschooling had to begin for the year- or if I would even survive. Home educating the way that I have has required many long hours every day- how would I add those hours to an already full day of canning, cheese making, laundry and garden chores? As overwhelmed as I already felt, I didn't want to be the frazzled woman who tried in vain to get everything done mediocrely, all the while becoming stressed and short-tempered and unlovely to the ones around me. I know, as any honest woman knows, that one can't do it all. But I also knew 'it all' was important.

My thoughts would turn to this throughout the day, churning around in my mind how to accomplish everything that needed to be accomplished- and to do so WELL. In a lovely way. In a gracious way. In a joyous way. I realized two things.

1) I don't want to just survive, I want to thrive. I want the things that I do (and how I do them) to show exude joy and not chaos...peace and not stress.

and

2) I realized that one of the most important lessons to teach my children about education is that home education is a pleasure. If I raise scholars who became so despite their own educational experience and refuse to homeschool, then I have failed. If I raise godly men and women who remember a frazzled and overwhelmed mother who struggled to meet their educational needs and so choose not to homeschool themselves, then it was I who convinced them that home education is too much of a pain, a challenge, and not worth the effort. If I-as an unlovely and stressed out, stretched-too-thin mother-raise children who hated their own experiences homeschooling, then I have failed at home education.

I knew that something must change. I can't do it all. But the important things I want to do- and I want to do them well.

In previous years I would gather supplies in advance...plan a fun little 'first day of school' treat and then dive right into the school year.

This year, for my childrens' sanity and my own, I made the decision that while the garden still grows, the warm winds beckon and the tasks loom greatly ahead of me, we will gently ease into the school year. We have been doing school for several weeks now...but the rule is we are done by 12:30 and not a minute more. This leaves the afternoons for me to accomplish the tasks that seem always before me. When frost finally arrives (and I have reached the point of hoping for it to come!) and the garden can be tucked in for a long winters' nap, well, then we can dive right into education and fill our days with learning and be more vigorous in our studies.

For now, though, the mornings hold little bits- of reading, science, history, math and spelling. A toe-dipping into the school year, if you will.

Friday, September 26, 2014

A full week after writing "I hope to chat more here next week" last Friday, I pop my head back into this happy place of mine on the web. Not exactly more chatty this week, was it? But the week was full and busy and...being lived.

Matt's brother John (his twin, in fact) and his wife Holly welcomed a new wee one into their family yesterday. My children, of course, have been anticipating the day and the gender as much as pretty much everyone else. Yesterday, I asked them what they thought Aunt Holly would be having. The overall consensus was that the boys wanted a boy, the girls wanted a girl. (Naturally.)

Mama: "Soooo....what do you think Aunt Holly is going to have today? A boy or a girl?"
Judah: "I think it is a boy."
Adele': "I think both."

Ha!

Then, as if to clarify, she said... "Or maybe it will be a boy OR a girl."

I should hope so!

Come to find out- it WAS a boy or a girl. Specifically, a girl. And she MAY have a name as beautiful as her...in fact, the name was on my own list! They haven't decided 100% so I had better not say, but I am hoping it is what they were thinking because, well, I am a bit partial to it! ;-)

I'll let you know soon. And you'll certainly be seeing more of her here...I practically begged to do some newborn shots of her. ;-)

I hope that maybe having a little sliver of a thing just over the hill from me, I can satisfy that baby itch that I seem to constantly have. It's a terminal condition in my case, I am afraid.

(A note on the hat: Little Lamb hat pattern found here. I made the hat first without the ears. I wanted the inner ear color to be gender specific so I waited to find out whether it was a boy or girl before making the ears. Had it been a boy, the inner ear would have been a light gray. The first one I made looked impossibly small so I ripped it out. The second one I made would have fit a 2 year old...ripped it out again. The third and final one I made seemed the appropriate size so I kept it but, as is often the case with newborns...it was too big still. I should have kept my first attempt knowing that most newborns ARE impossibly small!)

Friday, September 19, 2014

four little white pumpkins- how did the little plant know we needed four?

Andrew made me lavender swags for my windows. He knows the way to his Mama's heart.

I have decided that September is my least favorite month of the year.

Just the very moment the garden goes from gently tossing you a few veggies for the dinner table to throwing buckets of harvestable food at you every day that must be dealt with before it is ruined, the busyness of home education must begin. Then one must begin planning, buying books, beginning the school year, creating new routines and bringing back into structure the four young, boundless, carefree waifs running around barefoot all day and basking in the vast, unconstrained days of summer.

In addition, the fog-filled mornings and darkened evenings become so crisp that children start looking in vain for the sweaters and pants you packed up when you unearthed the shorts and tanktops way back in spring. So just when the garden and schooling is starting to make you feel overwhelmed- you have to do the annual summer/winter clothing switcheroo too.

It's like WHAM. A million things to do all at once. And not JUST once- but a million things to do pile up all at once...EVERY SINGLE DAY.

On top of it all, Matt decided to leave me (for his job) and spent the whole of this week out of town. So all chores- including milking a cow before dawn and again at dusk- were on my heavily burdened shoulders as well.

That was my week this week.

I'd rank myself right up there with Wonder Woman if I didn't know intimately how frazzled and exhausted I found myself every night. I am pretty sure Wonder Woman never felt frazzled or exhausted. But I was. Boy, was I.

I just wanted to pop on here to say a hearty 'hullo' before the week passes me by entirely. Next week I hope to chat more often. And maybe take a pretty little picture or two.

I am determined to enjoy the last little bit of September; the last of the vine ripened tomatoes plucked and plunked into open-bird mouths, the last of the vibrant flowers filling vases in every nook and cranny of the house, the last of the grocery-shopping-in-the-garden trips, the last of the wall of sunflowers brightening my view at the clothesline when I hang out laundry, the last of my walks from circle garden to cutting garden to sunflower patch with harvest basket dangling from my arm and scissors in hand to cut as many lovely blooms as the basket will fit and yes, the last of the fresh zucchini and cucumbers that I ate my fill of by August.

I am determined to enjoy these last days of September, no matter how many overwhelming things to add to my to-do list they bring with them because, soon enough, frost will be here and these ridiculously busy September days will be less busy...but also less colorful, less cheerful, less fruitful, less abundant, less lovely and less delicious.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Beautiful orange and red bulbs on shriveled brown naked stalks. That is essentially the state of my tomato beds. And the state of my living room is something like this: beautiful tomatoes of all different stages of development sitting upon crisp white window panes in order to bask in the ripening sun.

(This is what happens when one sends young children out to harvest RIPE tomatoes.)

Upon the advice of several friends and the ease with which the task is accomplished, I've decided to can more whole tomatoes in jars this year and see how I like it. Previously, I would make a few batches of salsa and sauce the rest of the tomato harvest. Canning whole tomatoes is much easier than either of those and really just consists of washing the fruit, cutting off the bad spots/stem, shoving them in jars and giving them a nice hot bath.

Spaghetti sauce is a bit more time consuming...there is cutting the tomatoes into smallish chunks, putting them through the food strainer, preparing seasonings/onions/peppers, boiling it all down for hours, adding store-bought tomato paste to thicken and then water-bathing the jars.

Canning whole tomatoes is much easier and faster in the short run. But will it be as easy and fast when dinner is fast approaching and I have 20 minutes to get a pizza in the oven or spaghetti on the table?

That has yet to be determined.

Home canned spaghetti sauce has always been one of those homemade 'convenience foods' and I certainly don't want to lose that!

One thing I know for sure- canning whole tomatoes requires MANY more canning jars and much more space for storage. I have completely filled my whole canning cupboard at this point. The bottom shelf in my kitchen is also full. The top shelf can't be used for full jars because it becomes too heavy and begins to distort. So I have reached the point that always comes around this time where I must be creative with storage.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Desperate Farmwives video below was compliments of my Mister. I don't know WHY he would feel the need to make one...and I have NO IDEA how that feedbag that he showed in the video became frayed. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. You could tell it was him because the video was accompanied by a short succinct sentence. And OBVIOUSLY one sentence doesn't cut it for the likes of me. Chatty, I am.

I don't know what other videos he may make or when the next will appear...but I will be on the lookout same as you. I don't need an excuse to enjoy a good Mattie video. Isn't that eye twinkle something?

Our pumpkin/sunflower patch is pretty spectacular these days!

Our nature table usually holds dead things (lets be honest) like fruit wasps and butterflies but when Andrew found a wounded bird, he put it inside our wicker cage and gave it a home on the nature table too. For a few hours. Before it was released into the woods far away from the cats and nearby the brook for water.

When in the throws of canning, Mothers often allow their children to do crazy things- just to keep them occupied and OUT of the kitchen. Facepainting always works.

Andrew is a Jersey cow chewing on daisies. In case you couldn't tell.

I've been wondering where all our eggs are disappearing to these days- then I caught the culprits red handed.

our first garden grown cantalope of the year!

Morning in the living room.

the cutting garden is providing me lots of bouquets. I am trying to soak them up for the flowerless winter ahead. I am not sure if it is the cold that makes winter so depressing- or the lack of flowers.

The boys are digging up the sod and finding stone sidewalk. If you stop by- beware the little cars by the stoop!

Remember I told you I wanted to do a colorful version of the blessing bonnet? Here it is! I decided on purple and green.

Due to my unfortunate babyless situation, I must use Chrissy doll to model.

I have so much to do in the kitchen today. The floor is filled with buckets 'o squash, the windows are lined with tomatoes that were plucked too early this weekend and are now prime for putting up and the garden hasn't been properly harvested from for several days which, during this period of intense ripening, is just asking for trouble. There will be buckets and bowls worth to fill the floor further, I am certain. And the milk-house fridge is FULL of milk because I have been too busy/lazy to do anything with it. This, too, is disastrous. Something must be done.

And yet the day is half over and the breakfast dishes are still waiting to be hidden in the dishwasher. That is what happens when I realize, a few hours before deadline, that a Schoolhouse Review is due by noon! And I certainly can't leave you all hanging with just a REVIEW post. ICK.

There was only one thing to do.

I simply HAD to sit here and show you some of the bright cheery things that keep my spirits up during these busy, fleeting September days.

About Me

Welcome to my blog! I am a girl who needs CREATING in her life like a fish needs water. It is in my bones.
Squeezing that need around a husband, five children, homeschooling, gardening, canning, and the call of the country life is the challenge!
Sometimes the only bit of creating I can manage in a day is to snap a picture or make a palatable dinner. And that is okay. That's my life right now-and it is BEAUTIFUL.